So, this game came up on Gametap last Thursday, and figured I'd give it a shot, given that it's effectively for free as I'm not the one paying my Gametap bill anymore.  

I had of course joined many others who openly mocked the concept and the marketing back when the game was first announced, and I'd heard the reviewers crow about how awful it was, and pretty much dismissed it.

We were all wrong.

This game is fucking AWESOME.  

The controls are a bit tricky to learn at first, but quite natural once you get the hang of it.  There are some performance issues occasionally, and the voice over and story is indeed, incredibly awful.

But that's not the important part.  The important part is, you're a big fucking shark that eats everything.  And it does that very, very well indeed.  This is good, violent fun at its absolute best.  Pretty much nothing but running amok and causing as much havoc as possible for your own perverse entertainment.

Yeah the story sucks and the missions are kind of a pain (so far), but damn if the designers didn't clue in to what the real joy of the game was:  Being a big fucking shark that eats everything.  They seem to revel in silly gore, and it's glorious.

In the course of the first actual mission after the tutorial, you solve a keycard puzzle, by leaping out of the water, grabbing a random scientist, and dragging his screaming bloody corpse to the control panel so the RFID tag will trigger the gate out of your tank.  Then you go on to tear havoc through a Sea World parody, drowning some "Free Shamu" protestors along the way, before a final cat-and-mouse-like fight against Shamu himself, which naturally ends in you leaping out of the water and tearing him in half.

As another prime example of the game's perverse sense of humor, when you use the stealth kill command next to a recently killed swimmer, Jaws will hold it in his mouth and swim on his side, holding the top half of the corpse above the water in a ghoulish attempt to mask it's presence by looking like a human swimmer.

Even the control scheme itself gets into the spirit of things.  Once you've got something in your jaws, you can jerk the control stick back and forth, and he'll shake his prey back and forth in his mouth, often dismembering it in the process.  

This shit is just damn cool.  It's not remotely without flaws, but come on, what other games do you know of where you get to be a big fucking shark who kills everything?

Dude, that game is FUCKING AWESOME for exactly why you described.  I love that fucking game.

Seriously, if you need mindless violence, that game is where it's fucking AT!

i am SOLD on this.  more carnage is good!  :hehe:

I love the idea of a great white shark having to solve puzzles and complete missions.

Wait. Wasn't that 'Jaws: The Revenge?'  

Okay,I am totally going to get this game for my Xbox.

I will note though, that apparently the PC version was cleaned up considerably from the console release in terms of bugs, so that may be something one should consider when looking to purchase.

Quote from: J ArcaneI will note though, that apparently the PC version was cleaned up considerably from the console release in terms of bugs, so that may be something one should consider when looking to purchase.

thanks for the heads-up on that.  i'll make sure to rent it before purchase (looking for the ps2 version, myself)

I never had any problems with my Xbox version.

This thread got me playing the game and freakin' lovin' it. Thanks fellaz.

-=Grim=-

I will give another thumbs up to this thread getting me started on this game.
 
Regarding console versions: I've played it on PS2 and on XBOX and while I think I would give the edge to the PS2 in controls, I think the XBOX looks and sounds better.
 
The game is GTA3(Grand Theft Auto). GWS (Great White Shark). So at it's heart, it's a sandbox of Amity Island with a mission/story based structure that weaves a thread throughout. You get points for completing missions (there are also side-missions, that have 3 levels of increasing difficulty) and with these points you can increase the stats of Jaws(Accuracy, Power, Speed, Hunger, Health). As you increase stats, you unlock power ups, a power up might be a special attack which may require special key combos.
 
I haven't felt any pressing need to pursue the story line, initially just enjoying knocking jet-skiiers off into the briny deep to give them a toothy chomp. Or my favorite: Body surf my fishy butt up onto the sandy beach to chomp one of those chicken swimmers standing on the beach who thought he'd be safe outta the water (take that, landlubber!).
 
I could see this game possibly wearing thin (the "boss fight" between the Orca/Jaws had a cool after battle cut scene, but the battle itself seemed like "death by a thousand cuts". As the Orca circled the tank, I swam behind him and when I would eventually catch up to him, chomp him in the tail...this would do like 1pt out of a possible 1000pts. If I ever got out of sync/passed him, he would chomp me for like a third of my points...wheee!!! Maybe there was another way to wage this battle, but it bored me to tears.
 
Pros:
* Your a giant fucking shark that chomps people/boats/sea-creatures/inanimate objects
* Jaws music while you're jaws...graphics are pretty good
* Your a giant fucking shark that chomps people/boats/sea-creatures/inanimate objects
* More fun than watching Jaws: The Revenge.
 
Cons:
* Bad Voice acting, thin story line
* Some Painful/Hard-to-Execute attack/special-move combos (IMHO)
* Sometimes the shark manuevers like a Mack truck.
* Some "What do I do next" moments in the middle of a mission (Haven't done may so I don't know if this is a trend/anomaly..."Destroy the Refinery", I'm looking at you!)
 
 
Overally, it's pretty fun and I'm willing to stick with it, until something else shiny catches my eye.

I hardly even play the missions. I just eat people and laugh as I swim away. Beaches are my favorite, but jet skiers come in a close second.

-=Grim=-